The Unreal and the Real
2012 Le Guin short story collection
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The Unreal and the Real: The Selected Short Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin is a collection of short stories by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin.[1] First issued by Small Beer Press in 2012 as a two-volume set, it was republished as a single volume by Saga Press in 2016. It was included in the boxed set with The Found and the Lost in the boxed set The Selected Short Fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin, which was shortlisted for the 2018 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award.[2]
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AuthorUrsula K. Le Guin
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction, fantasy
Published2012 (Small Beer Press as two volumes), 2016 (Saga Press)
Cover of the 2012 Small Beer Press edition | |
| Author | Ursula K. Le Guin |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction, fantasy |
| Published | 2012 (Small Beer Press as two volumes), 2016 (Saga Press) |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 626 |
The collection was a finalist for the 2014 Ken Kesey Award for Fiction.[2][3]
The first volume is titled Where on Earth, and the introduction is titled "Choosing and Dividing. The second volume is titled Outer Space, Inner Lands with the introduction "The Obligatory Bit about Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Genre."
List of stories
Volume One
| Title | Time of first publication | First edition publisher/publication | Summary | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Brothers and Sisters" | Summer 1976 | The Little Magazine, vol. 10 | A short story in Orsinia. | [4] |
| "A Week in the Country" | Summer 1976 | The Little Magazine, vol. 9 | A short story in Orsinia. | [4] |
| "Unlocking the Air" | 1990 | Playboy | ||
| "Imaginary Countries" | Winter 1973 | The Harvard Advocate | A short story in Orsinia. | [4] |
| "The Diary of the Rose" | 1976 | Future Power, edited by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann. New York City, Random House. | [5] | |
| "Direction of the Road" | 1973 | Orbit 12, edited by Damon Knight | This story is a fantasy written from the perspective of a conscious tree as it stands beside a road. Le Guin acknowledged that it was inspired by a tree in the real world. | [6] |
| "The White Donkey" | 1980 | TriQuarterly No. 49 | [5][7] | |
| "Gwilan's Harp" | 1977 | Redbook | [8][9][10][11] | |
| "May's Lion" | 1983 | The Little Magazine, vol. 14, | [12] | |
| “Buffalo Gals” | 1970 | |||
| "Horse Camp" | August 1986 | The New Yorker | [13] | |
| "The Lost Children" | January 1996 | Thirteenth Moon, edited by Jacob Weisman. Tachyon Corporation, place of publication unknown. | [14][15] | |
| The Water is Wide | 1976 | Portland, Pendragon Press | [16] | |
| "Texts" | 1990 | American Short Fiction, as part of the PEN Syndication Fiction Project. Previously collected in Searoad (1991). Klatsand. | [17] | |
| "Sleepwalkers" | 1991 | Mississippi Mud. Previously collected in Searoad (1991). Klatsand. | [17] | |
| "Hand, Cup, Shell" | 1989 | The Southwest Review Autumn 1989. Previously collected in Searoad (1991). Klatsand. | [17] | |
| "Ether OR" | November 1995 | Asimov's Science Fiction, November 1995 issue. | Also stylized as Ether, Or. Reprinted in Unlocking the Air and Other Stories (1996). | [17] |
| "Half Past Four" | September 1987 | The New Yorker | [18][19] | |
Volume Two
| Title | Time of first publication | First edition publisher/publication | Summary | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" | 1973 | New Dimensions III, edited by Robert Silverberg | This piece describes a town whose citizens are universally happy, but whose happiness depends on a single child being in perpetual torment. Le Guin wrote that the story was inspired by a passage from the philosopher William James. | [20][21] |
| "Semley's Necklace" | September 1964 | Amazing Stories | The first piece of Hainish Cycle fiction written by Le Guin. Previously published as "The Dowry of Angyar", and used as the prologue of Rocannon's World. The story, inspired by the Norse legend of the Brísingamen, tells of an impoverished bride that journeys off-world to retrieve a precious necklace that once belonged to her family. | [22] |
| "Nine Lives" | November 1969 | Playboy, vol. 16 | Collected in The Wind's Twelve Quarters. | [21] |
| "Mazes" | 1975 | Epoch, edited by Roger Elwood and Robert Silverberg. New York City, Berkley Publishing Corporation. | Collected in The Compass Rose. | [5] |
| "First Contact with the Gorgonids" | January 1992 | Omni, vol. 14. | Previously collected in A Fisherman of the Inland Sea. | [23][24] |
| "The Shobies' Story" | 1990 | Universe 1, edited by Terry Carr. New York City, Ace Books. | Previously collected in A Fisherman of the Inland Sea (1994). | [25][26] |
| "Betrayals" | 1994 | The Blue Motel | Previously collected in Four Ways to Forgiveness and Five Ways to Forgiveness. | [27] |
| "The Matter of Seggri" | Spring 1994 | Crank! magazine | Previously collected in The Birthday of the World (2002) and The Found and the Lost (2016). | [28][29] |
| "Solitude" | December 1994 | The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol. 87 | Previously collected in The Birthday of the World (2002). | [29] |
| "The Wild Girls" | March 2002 | Asimov's Science Fiction, March 2002 issue. | "Nine Lives" is a science fiction story, in which a group of human clones join a two-person exploratory party on a remote planet. | [30][31] |
| “The Fliers of Gy” | November 2000 | Published online on Sci Fi | Printed for the first time in Changing Planes (2002), where it was titled "The Fliers of Gy". | [31][32] |
| "The Silence of the Asonu" | 1998 | Orion, under the title The Wisdom of the Asonu, | [33] | |
| "The Ascent of the North Face" | 1983 | Isaac Asimov's Space of Her Own, edited by Shawna McCarthy. New York City, Davis Publications. | Previously collected in A Fisherman of the Inland Sea (1994). | [34][35] |
| "The Author of the Acacia Seeds and Other Extracts from the Journal of the Association of Therolinguistics" | 1974 | Fellowship of the Stars, edited by Terry Carr. New York City, Simon & Schuster. | Collected in The Compass Rose (1982), Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences (1987). | [36][5] |
| "The Wife's Story" | 1982 | The Compass Rose, Pendragon Press. | [37] | |
| "The Rule of Names" | April 1964 | Fantastic magazine, vol. 13 | Reprinted in The Wind's Twelve Quarters (1975) and The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition (2018). | [21] |
| "Small Change" | 1981 | Tor zu den Sternen, edited by Peter Wilfert. Munich, Goldmann Verlag. | Previously collected in The Compass Rose (1982). | [5] |
| "The Poacher" | 1993 | Xanadu, edited by Jane Yolen. New York City, Tor Books. | Previously collected in Unlocking the Air and Other Stories (1996). | [38][39] |
| "Sur" | February 1982 | The New Yorker | Previously collected in The Compass Rose (1982). | [5][40] |
| "She Unnames Them" | January 1985 | The New Yorker | Previously collected in Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences (1987). | [41] |